


The Twisted Mask

by idrilsdarkwritings (idrilhadhafang)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Amnesiac Poe Dameron, Blood and Injury, Evil Armitage Hux, First Order Poe Dameron, Hux is Not Nice, It’s an AU I know that much, Knights of the Old Republic vibes, M/M, Memory Loss, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Protective Kylo Ren, Slow Burn Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren, Torture, Tumblr Prompt, in a really twisted way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 13:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19769149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilsdarkwritings
Summary: “Who are you?” Poe’s voice sounded groggy and almost mumbled.So Poe didn’t remember him. Interesting. He couldn’t simply manipulate Poe (he wasn’t a good liar, after all; neither he nor Poe were such), but even so...”Someone who can help you,” he said, and that...that wasn’t really a lie.In which Poe loses his memory, and Kylo takes him under his wing as a soldier of the First Order.





	1. Interrogation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Super-secret-and-shy prompted me on this. And it is an awesome prompt:
> 
> “Poe gets captured again, Hux takes glee in “interrogating” (AKA- Torturing) him. Kylo finds out and puts a stop to this, but thanks to everything Hux did to him, Poe now has amnesia. Kylo… decides that he isn’t particularly upset about this and takes Poe under his wing.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux goes too far.

When Poe’s ship was attacked, he didn’t even think in telling the others to save themselves.

He couldn’t leave them to the First Order, after all. He wasn’t going to do it. Even as the others headed towards the escape pods, Poe drew his blaster, facing the storm ahead of him. Of course he wasn’t afraid. He couldn’t afford to be. 

The ship shook, and it was there that the Knights of Ren boarded. The other six Vader impersonators, Poe couldn’t help but think. Dressed in strange masks, the sorts of masks that called to mind things like human skulls, or the faces of reptiles, or —

One of them, a sniper, raised their blaster. Poe shot at them, only for another one to raise their lightsaber and deflect the blaster bolt like it was nothing before freezing Poe. Something they must have learned from Kylo. 

But once again, against a Knight of Ren, Poe lost. 

***

Poe knew that he was in for a galaxy of hurt when he woke in the interrogation room, and yet somehow, he wasn’t afraid. He’d practiced. General Organa had apologized, at least, for sending him to be tortured without so much as teaching him techniques to shield his mind. So they had learned. Playing sabaac in your head. That was the key. Playing sabaac, counting hyperspace routes, counting planets, anything. As long as the person attacking your mind couldn’t reach you. 

But it wasn’t Ren who greeted him in the interrogation room, but Hux. The smirking, conniving bastard, who had blown up the Hosnian system without any remorse. Hux crossed over to him, slowly, menacingly, before slapping Poe. The sting was enough to make Poe angrier, more ready to fight back. 

“Hello, Commander Dameron,” Hux said, in that slimy voice of his; the last time Poe came across something so oily, he was helping clean up a spill from one of the X-Wings. “Been a while since you’ve been here, hasn’t it?”

”Your men didn’t get any information out of me then, and they won’t now." Poe said. 

“Oh, I’m not here for information. Not just information,” Hux said. “You humiliated me in the battle of D’Qar.”

Poe couldn’t help but laugh. The whole idea was so absurd, so pathetic, that he couldn’t help it. 

“Really?” he said. “That’s what this is about? I’m here because General Hugs can’t take a joke — ?”

The first electric shock was small. At least, small in comparison. But it hurt. Poe cried out in pain, and Hux smirked. 

“You make some of the loveliest noises when you’re in pain,” Hux said. “Now...where are your friends?”

”Go to the Corellian hells and rot there,” Poe said. 

The pain intensified. And even as Poe lay on the rack, he found himself relying on what the long gone Atton Rand had said. _Count the hyperspace routes, one by one..._

It was hard to focus on through the pain. 

***

Kylo didn’t know why he had chosen to sit this one out. Not really. Even as he listened to the sounds of Poe screaming down the hall, everything from torture droids to vibroblades being used on Poe, he knew that he hated those sounds. He always had. Even the idea of interrogating Poe the first time around had been, truly, repulsive. It had been Snoke who had effectively coerced him into doing it, and Snoke who had congratulated him for a job well-done. 

(It hadn’t felt like a job well-done, even now)

He had to do something. Anything at all. He didn’t have to interrogate Poe, not truly. He didn’t have to do it yet — though perhaps he was better than Hux. His methods didn’t leave marks, after all. 

He rose from his meditative position and headed down the hall towards the interrogation room. What he saw made a certain possessive rage well up in him. Poe...Hux has really been at him. He was bloodied, bruised...and Kylo knew that he needed to punish Hux. Hurt him, somehow. 

The wonderful thing about flicking Hux into a wall was that he didn’t have to kill him. Just humiliate him further. He still needed Hux, unfortunately; he couldn’t kill him. But he could give him some humiliation to go with his defeat. 

Kylo crossed over towards Poe. He wore his new mask, the mask that he had built to replace the one he’d broken in a rage. Poe looked up at him, clearly in a fog. And his mind...

Hux hadn’t just harmed Poe’s body. His mind. that beautiful mind, had been effectively broken. Scattered into pieces. 

“Who are you?” Poe’s voice sounded groggy and almost mumbled. 

So Poe didn’t remember him. Interesting. He couldn’t simply manipulate Poe (he wasn’t a good liar, after all; neither he nor Poe were such), but even so...

”Someone who can help you,” he said, and that...that wasn’t really a lie. 


	2. Paige

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe gets his first memory of Paige Tico.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Warning for ableist language Poe uses against himself.

_Three years later..._

As far as Poe Dameron knew, there were quite a few gaps in his memory. If by quite a few he meant a lot, of course. He couldn’t say he remembered anything but the last three years of his life, serving the First Order under the Supreme Leader. Who he was still curious about. Why did he wear that stupid mask, anyway? 

Still, Ren could be weird. Case in point, when one of the soldiers not under Poe’s command started bothering him about something, and Ren intervened. 

“Is there a problem?”

Poe turned around to see Kylo Ren. He couldn’t help but swallow; Ren was tall. Poe knew he was short, but at the age of thirty-two, Ren practically towered over Poe. Like a giant, Poe couldn’t help but think. 

“N-no, Supreme Leader,” the soldier said, and Poe couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for him. 

“Good,” Ren rumbled, and the soldier left. 

It was then that Ren turned to Poe.

”You know you don’t have to fight my battles,” Poe said. “I had everything under control.”

”I see,” Ren said. “I just don’t like those who think they can get away with harming my charges.”

”Charges. Huh.” Poe looked up at Ren, suddenly feeling very small. “People might start thinking you’re not as tough as you act, Supreme Leader.”

A huff from behind the mask. “Insolent,” Ren said, but there was no real anger in it. 

“You could say that,” Poe said. A beat. “I don’t think you just came here to talk, though.”

”Someone has to look after you.”

Poe supposed it was true. He hadn’t really gotten to know the Supreme Leader. He only knew the the Supreme Leader interceded when Poe seemed to be in trouble, somehow. Space battles. And sometimes, just minor altercations like this. 

“Well...thanks.” Poe knew he could handle himself full well. Shooting down Resistance fighters trying to kill him first, for example. It was self-defense, really. If the Resistance just left them alone, maybe they wouldn’t be having this stupid war. It wasn’t even like the Supreme Leader was necessarily a bad man. 

***

_— a ship going up in flames, in one fiery explosion. A bomber ship, to be more exact. And that sudden, hollow feeling that he had done this, that it was his fault, his fault, his fault... —_

Poe jolted awake in that moment, looking around his room to try and steady himself. In his mind, he tried to remember where he was. In his room on the First Order’s base, the Hand of Vader. Hand of Vader. Poe couldn’t help but smile. For all Supreme Leader Kylo Ren talked of killing the past, he had some sentiment left over for Vader for whatever reason. 

It had to be a good reason, whatever it was.

He jotted down the dream in his datapad. Along with the shame that came with it. Why would he be upset about some nameless, faceless Resistance vermin dying, someone he didn’t even know, to boot?

Maybe she’d been a friend. Maybe he’d been in love with her at some point. It was possible. Poe wasn’t sure he knew. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, either. But even so...

Maybe he could talk to the doctor onboard the ship or anything like that. Definitely not his teammates. They would think he was crazy, and justifiably so. 

***

”...and then there’s the sound of that...woman saying ‘Bombs away’,” Poe said. “I don’t know why I dreamed about the both of them. That dead Resistance fighter.”

Doctor Kenn sighed. She was a middle-aged woman with gray-streaked red hair. Then, “Well, Poe, you’ve always had a big heart. Too big for your own good. You could very well have been feeling guilt over the kills you’ve made. Every soldier does. Well, every soldier not named Admiral Hux.” A beat. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

”Not a word,” Poe said. He sighed. “At least he has a desk job. That way I don’t have to see him that often.”

”Fortunate in some ways,” Kenn said. She sighed. “Really, Poe, don’t take this to heart. You did nothing that any soldier in battle wouldn’t have done.”

Maybe. Still, somehow, it didn’t just feel like a kriffed-up dream. It felt, somehow, like a memory.

Maybe in a way it was the answer to his missing memories...and yet, Poe couldn’t help but be frightened at what he could find. 


End file.
